Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to techniques for providing adaptive bit rate streaming. More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to techniques for providing adaptive bit rates during broadcast transmission in distributed content delivery networks.
Related Art
Improvements in the capabilities and numbers of electronic devices have resulted in the increased distribution of digital content to the electronic devices. For example, video, audio, and/or other types of media streams may be transmitted to multiple personal computers, laptop computers, mobile phones, tablet computers, and/or other network-enabled electronic devices using Internet-based content providers and/or content delivery networks.
However, bandwidth consumed by digital content delivery may interfere with playback of the content and/or other network access on the electronic devices. For example, increased demand for video in a corporate environment may shift network usage in the corporate network from small transactional payloads to large distributed payloads. In turn, the corporate network may be overburdened by the payloads, resulting in an impaired video experience and/or an inability of business-critical traffic to reach devices in the corporate network.
Some companies have tried to solve this problem by creating distributed content delivery networks. In a distributed content delivery network, clients may act as peers that share content among one another. Once a client receives a file from a central server, that client becomes a potential server for that file to other clients. As clients download the content, the number of potential servers for the content grows, allowing subsequent clients to obtain the content from the Local Area Network (LAN) instead of a Wide Area Network (WAN) and reducing congestion between the clients and the WAN.
On the other hand, bandwidth and/or processor utilization may continue to impact the playback of content at individual clients. For example, video of a live event may be streamed to hundreds or thousands of clients across multiple networks and/or physical locations. As the number of clients, networks, and/or locations grows, the likelihood that one or more clients and/or networks are misconfigured or unavailable increases. Moreover, differences in bandwidth among clients may cause difficulties in selecting an appropriate bit rate for content to be shared among a set of peers.
Consequently, distribution and playback of content to clients across multiple networks and/or physical locations may be facilitated by mechanisms for dynamically detecting and managing network and/or playback issues on the clients.